Friday flashback: ‘The joys of my summer’

We’re not even at May, let alone summer, so why resurrect a three-year-old blog post about the joys of summer?

Here’s why:

— Because on a rainy day like today, you want to remind yourself that warm, dry days lie ahead.

— Because any photo of a homegrown tomato conjures only good thoughts about nature and food.

— Because my longtime buddy, Bob Ehlers, nailed it when he wrote this piece about simple pleasures, including a list of 10 things that bring him joy. Among them: “eating fresh sweet corn” and going sockless.

In his 2013 blog post for Voices of August, Bob wrote: “For me, some of the most basic and enduring sources of summertime joy are sensory — riding my bike past a field of aromatic freshly cut hay, or walking barefoot around our yard seeing the hostas and fruit trees in full foliage. But the single event I truly, truly anticipate every year is standing in our garden, taking a bite of the first ripe tomato, a personal mini-celebration of taste.”